Agritourism Has Taken Root in Fox Valley, Elsewhere

By Maureen Wallenfang, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

May 20–The Keyes family knows why their Mulberry Lane Farm in Sherwood draws crowds.

Showing city people the business end of a cow, encouraging quality family time and inspiring nostalgia are all a part of the allure of this petting farm in Calumet County.

But mostly, its true pull is giving people the farm experience they expect to find in the middle of America’s Dairyland.

“People call us and say, ‘We’re visiting Wisconsin and we want to visit a farm.’ There’s no other place for them to go,” said Bonnie Keyes, who owns the farm with husband, Patrick, and mother-in-law, Coni.

Mulberry Lane Farm opened in fall 2005 and has already drawn thousands of children along with their teachers, parents or grandparents. Last year, even without a full summer season, it drew 6,700 people. This year, with gas prices discouraging long-distance trips, they figure they’ll see more families and attendance could hit 10,000.

The farm is one of the best area examples of agritourism, a new buzzword in the tourism business that refers to the melding of agriculture and tourism. It means farms, food factories and other production sites are opened to some degree to the public. The farmer or cheesemaker derives extra income from tour fees or a retail shop catering to the tourists. It can also include pick-your-own farms that invite the public to their fields and orchards.

The Keyes family was a pioneer in agritourism when Coni Keyes, mother of 13 children, opened her garden to the public as a pick-your-own venture 43 years ago to make a little money. She later expanded that to a petting farm in Waterford, Wis. The family now owns half a dozen permanent petting farms under the Green Meadows Farms name around the country.

Patrick Keyes was a latecomer to the family business, avoiding what was in his blood until the age of 50. After growing up on the family’s Waterford farm, he left the family business to start Keyes Custom Home Improvement and Keyes Sawmill in Calumet County.

Now, he’s back into farming, growing alfalfa and pumpkins, and guiding busloads of school children and streams of families around the farm.

The term agritourism isn’t a word that slips easily off his lips.

“We accept the term, but we won’t be adopting that as part of our name,” he joked.

According to the state’s Department of Tourism, “Agritourism attendance is expected to grow over 30 percent in the next decade as urban dwellers flock to farms to educate their children and revisit their roots.”

Kelly Hoxtell, economic development specialist for Calumet County, says she agrees agritourism has great potential. “A lot of people have been getting into hobby farms. They’ve asked about how to market them. I think it will be an up-and-coming thing and we’ll see more in the future.”

Patience is key Conversely, some experts say it will be slow going because requirements and regulations will discourage many.

Feasibility, USDA licensing, zoning, marketing, startup costs and the biohazards carried in on the public’s shoes can also be barriers to making a private farm into a public attraction.

Dairy farms and working farms have to consider practicalities and realities, said Zen Miller, dairy and livestock agent for the University of Wisconsin Extension in Grand Chute.

“They’re hesitant to give tours because of bio terrorism and health requirements. It’s harder and harder to get tours of processing facilities for those reasons,” he said. “No one is saying ,’come out here and bale hay for a day’ because of liability and insurance.”

Aside from Mulberry Lane Farm, agritourism in the strictest sense — inviting the public to an agricultural setting to gain additional revenue — is currently more of a lofty idea than a solid business reality in this part of the state.

Few farmers have jumped whole-heartedly into the business of taking their properties public.

The Union Star Cheese Factory and Lamers Dairy are two of the few area factories that give tours, though neither one promotes heavily or charges much, if anything.

“We’re Germans and Norwegians. We aren’t used to promoting ourselves,” said David Metzig, owner of the 100-year-old Union Star Cheese Factory in Zittau.

His primary “tourists” are area fourth-graders. “They’ll be customers in about 20 years,” he jokes.

Metzig feels agritourism will take root as farms, dairies and factories see the economic value in self-promotion.

“We see what the California winemakers are doing,” he said. “That’s as much about entertainment as it is about selling wine.”

He knows that if he goes that route, “I’ll have to have a tasting room, a video, and a big room where they see a wheel of cheese.”

When the agritourism term is broadened to include factories that have retail stores, like Simon’s Specialty Cheese and Kerrigan Brothers Winery, or annual “breakfast on the farm” type events and the myriad of farmers markets, the separation between producers and consumers blurs a little more.

“It’s the urbanization of agritourism,” said Pam Seidl, Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau director of marketing. “It’s morphing into local farm markets with farmers bringing their products to you in an urban setting. It’s focusing on locally grown products.”

Agritourism was the subject of several seminars at the recent Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Appleton.

Speaker Jane Eckert, a farmer’s daughter from St. Louis, gave a seminar in which she talked about opening up her family’s orchard to the public and eventually attracting 500,000 visitors a year. “Farmers are the worst people to realize what they have,” she said about agritourism and why it’s not more prevalent. “It’s a segment of tourism that didn’t have a name for a long time.”

Farmers work seven days a week for low pay, and her family’s move into what she called “retail” was an answer to the question, “How can we sustain the farm into the next generation?”

She knew agritourism was an area of great opportunity when she talked to a group of city children.

“You ask them, ‘Where does milk come from?’ and they say it comes from the grocery store in plastic jugs.”

Eckert said tourists want scenery, to particulate in farm activities, to spend time with family and friends at the site and to buy agricultural products.

“Experience is the word you’ll hear a lot in tourism,” she said. “We are the authentic experience. We are living our work. We don’t have to create a Disney experience. People want to get out of town. They want to see a simpler life. They want that escape.”

“What they’re selling is the good life, the memories, quality food products and education,” said Ross Ament, an agritourism consultant from Poynette, Wis. “For the farmer, it’s a way they can have an alternative cash flow,” His one cautionary note to farmers considering the practice: “You better like people.”

And farmers better be in for the long haul.

“On average, it takes five years to show a profit,” said Bonnie Keyes at Mulberry Lane Farm, now in year two of a five-year plan. “You have to know you’re not going to make anything for that time and surround yourself with positive people.”

PLACES TO GO:

–Mulberry Lane Farm W3190 County B, Sherwood (Farm is between St. John and Hilbert). Two-hour guided educational tours include touching animals, milking a cow, pony rides, hayrides. $8 general admission; group rates with reservations are $6 per person. To see visiting days and hours, go to the Web site www.mulberrylanefarmwi.com. 920-989-3130

–Lamers Dairy and Country Store Hourlong plant tours by appointment only. Nominal charge. N410 Speel School Road, Buchanan. 920-830-0980

–Union Star Cheese Factory 7742 County II, Zittau Informal, free, half-hour tours of the plant with a cheesemaker. Best to come in the morning, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., on any day except Sunday, said factory owner David Metzig. No appointments are necessary. 920-836-2804

–Downtown Appleton Farm Market College Avenue Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 16 through Oct. 27. For more seasonal information on other area farm markets and pick-your-own strawberries, apples and pumpkin sites, watch The Post-Crescent’s features pages.

–Breakfast on the Farm June 10, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Greg and Jean Van Handel Dairy Farm N1974 County N, Vandenbrook (north of Little Chute) For cost, directions, event schedule, go to www.co.outagamie.wi.us/uwex www.co.outagamie.wi.us/uwex

–Sundae on the Dairy Farm June 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. David and Rhonda Klessig’s River’s Bend Dairy N5950 W. River Road in Hilbert For information on this and other farm events, go to www.wisdairy.com, click on special offers and scroll down to June Dairy Month Diary Breakfasts and Events.

–On the Web For more Calumet County farm experiences: http://www.travelcalumet.com/listing.iml?CAT=30 http://www.travelcalumet.com/listing.iml?CAT=30

WHAT’S AGRITOURISM?

It’s the blend of agriculture and tourism, two of Wisconsin’s biggest industries. It ranges from experiences in agriculture to selling agricultural products directly to the consumer. Some variations:

–Farms or agricultural sites that accept visitors and promote themselves as a destination to generate extra income. They might have tours, animal petting areas, corn mazes or hay rides.

–Pick-your-own fruit orchards.

–Farm markets in urban settings.

–Breakfast on the Farm events that raise money to promote the dairy industry.

–Cheese factories, dairies or wineries that allow tourists to tour facilities, or have a retail shop.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

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